A.P. Music Theory

Helpful websites: 
 www.wwnorton.com/web/musictheory
www.gmajormusictheory.org

AP Music Theory

Syllabus & Course Overview

Primary Texts

  • The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis, with Workbook and Anthology

      Clendinning, Jane Piper, and Elizabeth West Marvin

      New York:  W.W. Norton.   2005.

  • Music for Sight-Singing ,6th ed .

      Ottman ,Robert.  Upper Saddle River, N.J.:

            Prentice Hall. 2004.

  • The Musician ’s Guide to Aural Skills

             Phillips, Joel, Jane Piper Clendinning ,and Elizabeth West Marvin .

            Vol.1 New York:  W.W.Norton.  2005.

 

Course Planner

First Six Weeks

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis:(textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Part I:  Building a Musical Vocabulary

Week 1 Overview of AP Music Theory Course Description book

Sample exam questions found in the AP Course Description.

Complete the sample free-response questions as a class, including the sight-singing exercises. 

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis (textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Week 1                        Chapter 1 Pitch and Pitch Class

Week 2                        Chapter 2 Beat, Meter, and Rhythm:  Simple Meters

Weeks 3 –4     Chapter 3 Pitch Collections, Scales, and Major Keys

Week 5                        Chapter 4 Minor Keys and Diatonic Modes

                        Chapter 5 Beat, Meter and Rhythm:  Compound Meters

Week 6            Chapter 6 Pitch Intervals

Sight-Singing:

Ottman, Robert.  Music for Sight-Singing.

Week 1            Chapter 1 Introduction to Solfège/Simple Meter

Week 3            Chapter 2 Scale Line Melodies/Simple Meter

Week 5            Chapter 3 Intervals from the Tonic Triad, Major Keys/Simple Meter

 

Second Six Weeks

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis:(textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Weeks 1-2       Chapter 7 Triads and Seventh Chords

Week 3                        Part 1 Exam

 

Part II:  Linking Musical Elements in Time

Weeks 4-5       Chapter 8 Intervals in Action

Week 6            Chapter 9 Melodic and Rhythmic Embellishment in Two-Voice

                        Composition

Sight-Singing

Ottman, Robert. Music for Sight-Singing .

Week 1            Chapter 4 Intervals from the Tonic Triad, Major Keys/Compound

                        Meter

Week 3                        Chapter 5 Minor Keys:  Intervals from the Tonic Triad/Simple and

                        Compound Meters

Week 5            Chapter 6 Intervals from the Dominant Triad:  Major and Minor

                        Keys

 

Third Six Weeks

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis:(textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Week 1            Chapter 10 Notation and Scoring

Weeks 2-3       Chapter 11 Voicing Chords in Multiple Parts:  Instrumentation

Week 4            Part II Exam

Week 5           Mid term review

Sight-Singing

Week 1                        Chapter 8 Further Use of Diatonic Intervals

Week 3            Chapter 9 Intervals from the Dominant Seventh Chord

 

MID-TERM REVIEW AND EXAM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fourth Six Weeks

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis:(textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Part III:  The Phrase Model

Week 1                        Chapter 12  The Basic Phrase Model:  Tonic and Dominant Voice-

                        Leading

Week 2                        Chapter 13 Embellishing Tones

Week 3            Chapter 14 Chorale Harmonization and Figured Bass

Week 4                        Chapter 15 Expanding the Basic Phrase:  Leading-Tone, Predominant,

                        and 6/4 Chords

Week 5                        Chapter 16 Further Expansions of the Basic Phrase:  Tonic Expansions,

                        Root Progressions, and the Mediant Triad

Week 6                        Chapter 17  The Interaction of Melody and Harmony:  More on

                        Cadence, Phrase, and Melody

 

Sight-Singing

Part II —Melody:  Diatonic Intervals/Rhythm:  Subdivision of the Beat

Week 1            Chapter 10 Rhythm Dictation Practice

Week 2            Chapter 11 Melody:  Intervals from the Tonic and Dominant Triads

Week 3            Chapter 12 Further Use of Diatonic Intervals

8-measure excerpts from choral literature

Teacher-composed 8-measure phrases

Student-composed 8-measure phrases

 

Fifth Six Weeks

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis:(textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Week 1            Chapter 18 Diatonic Sequences

Week 2            Chapter 19 Intensifying the Dominant:  Secondary Dominants and

                        Secondary Leading-Tone Chords; New Voice-Leading Chords

Part V:  Musical Form and Interpretation

Week 3            Part III Exam

                        Chapter 26 Popular Song and Art Song

Week 4            Chapter 27 Variation and Rondo

                        Chapter 23 Binary and Ternary Forms (from Part IV)

Week 5                        Chapter 28 Sonata-Form Movements

                        Chapter 29 Chromaticism;   Introduction to 20th century composing  

                        techniques

Week 6            Part V Exam

 

 

Sixth Six Weeks

Part IV:  Further Expansion of the Harmonic Vocabulary

Chapters from The Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis:(textbook, anthology);

Guide to Aural Skills (workbook)

 

Week 1                        Chapter 21 Tonicizing Scale Degrees Other Than V

                        Chapter 22 Modulation to Closely Related Keys  

Week 2            Chapter 30  Twentieth Centruy Modes, Scales and Sets

                        (including analysis)

Week 3                        Part IV/Part VI Exam

Weeks 1–6      Required exams from the Musician’s Guide Web site

Weeks 1–6      Dictation exercises —melodic and harmonic

Weeks 1–6      Free-response question exercises

Weeks 1–6      Recorded sight-singing exercises

Weeks 1 –6     In-depth aural analysis of literature —classwork/discussion

Weeks 1 –6     Students complete teacher-designed exams based on AP Released Exam

                        materials.

Weeks 1-6       Student arranging assignments

Weeks 3-5:      Complete AP Music Theory Released Exams

All students are administered two recorded sight-singing tests comparable to those used on the AP Exam.